During a hot New York summer, Leo stews on his stoop, obsessing over the fate of the earth, yet entirely unable to come to terms with his mother’s chronic illness. Mother Earth is a comedy that explores neighborhood, activism, community and family.

Reading at Minneapolis’ Illusion Theatre. Reading with Page 73 Productions. Developed in July 2008 at the Playlabs Conference in Minneapolis.

Mother Earth is pretty directly inspired by the Lower East Side block I used to live on. I have a number of “Lower East Side plays”, some more in the realist vein, and some more stylized, and theatrical. This is one of the more realist plays (though it’s all relative), loosely a sequel to “243”. I’ve dealt with chronic illness in my family, and I know how exhausting it can be. There’s something about that experience that reminds me of our experience with global climate change. Sure we can promise to make certain kinds of small adjustments (and to feel good about ourselves in the process), but are we willing and able to make the daily changes that it would require to slow this runaway train? One hundred years from now, what will people say?